The NBA Juice Isn't There

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By Noah Dahl

This NBA season is different than what we’ve come to expect as fans. It hasn’t brought the same excitement. So why is this happening? Lebron isn’t as dominant as he once was, the Warriors aren’t rattling off 24-game win streaks and there is no true power house in the East.

Lebron James is in his 17th season and 17 years playing in the NBA will wear you down. He isn’t in his 20s anymore and it’s become clear that he’s ready to pass the torch to a younger guy. The Golden State Warriors are not relevant which gives NBA fans no one to hate. Every NBA fan base loves to hate a team collectively and for the past few years that team has been the Warriors. They lost Kevin Durant to Brooklyn plus the lack of splash brothers Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on the court has left them desolate. Plus Andre Iguodala left them in the offseason which further took the air out of the Dubs. They acquired D’Angelo Russell(who is now gone to Minnesota) and still had Draymond Green, but there was no chance for this team to amount to anything. So while some people were frustrated with the Warriors success in recent years, their poor season has left us with no villain. On the topic of injuries, we haven’t seen Kevin Durant at all this season and his teammate Kyrie Irving has played in only 20 of 49 games and the Nets are sitting at a 22-27 record, a team which many people hyped up coming into the season.

Finally we need to address the rookies we are seeing out of this past year's draft . The player running away with rookie of the year is Ja Morant out of Murray State. Now I'm a betting degenerate, so I watched him more than the common person in college. As exciting as it is to watch him play, and really command and lead a young Grizzlies core, and even take shots at Andre Iguodala and Steph Curry on twitter, this is not what the NBA wanted. The NBA needed Zion Williamson just as much as he needed the NBA. It's Zion's responsibility to take over the hype that has been lost from everything I've listed so far. Zion missing the first half of the season and people's lack of interest or knowledge of the rest of the rookie class has hurt the NBA. Despite all this the season is beginning to life and ramp up so maybe there is a glimmer of hope. If not, baseball season is right around the corner and that gives us something to look forward to.